On whether he would talk to his team about the situation its in:“What does a manager need to tell a team that needs to win two games to win the division title? If they don’t know that, then we’ve got a real big problem.

“I did tell them after the game, ‘You’re not going to get any help. Don’t expect it. And if you want to win the division, you’ve got to win two games. It’s that simple.’ ”

On whether he would shake up the lineup Saturday:“I’m not sure about that. On paper, the lineup looked pretty good tonight, and we didn’t do anything.”

On whether the Tigers let White Sox starter Jake Peavy off the hook in the first inning:“We had a little opportunity there with first and second. But we didn’t get anything out of it.

“Against real good pitchers, you very rarely string a bunch of hits together, if the pitcher’s really good. You might get a couple, but then they’re capable of getting out of it because their stuff’s so good. We had a shot in the first inning -- yeah, sure we did -- to get right back in it, but we didn’t do it.”

More on Peavy:“He pitched well. His ball was darting all over. His ball’s got a lot of action on it. He’s impressive. … He’s got great action and life on his ball late.”

On matching up with good pitchers:“When you pitch against a guy like Peavy, your guy has to pitch good, because runs are going to be stingy. And if you give up four or five, you’re done in most cases. That doesn’t mean you give up, don’t take this wrong. But in most cases, you run into a real stellar pitcher and you give up three, four, five runs, you’re not going to beat them very often.”

On Tigers starter Edwin Jackson:“He just made way too many bad pitches right in the middle of the plate. Way, way too many bad pitches in the middle of the plate. I mean, just way too many hittable pitches.”

On whether he was puzzled by the lack of hits Friday:“To be honest with you, I’ve been a little puzzled all year why they haven’t hit better. But not so much against a guy like Peavy. The real good ones usually shut down good hitting. We certainly didn’t do very much. We had one hit until the eighth inning.”

On what the Tigers need to do in the next two games:“It’s simple: We’ve got to score runs. There’s no secret here. We’ve got to score runs. We’ve got to go up, have good at-bats, get some hits, hit some ‘tweeners and get guys running on the bases. If we don’t, we’ll get our (butt) beat. It’s that simple.

"There’s no excuses, nothing strange about it. You’ve got to go out and grind out your at-bats and get some guys out there and get some hits when you’ve got guys out there."

On how much the Tigers need Miguel Cabrera to hit like he can this weekend:“We need everybody to hit like they can.”

On whether rookie pitcher Alfredo Figaro is an excitable player:“I can’t say that I know the answer to that. We’ll find out, and if it looks like he is, we’ll get him out of there early. We’ll be able to afford to because our bullpen’s in good shape. So we’ll watch it close. If we feel like we need to do something early, we will. But I don’t know. I think he’s got a chance to pitch a good game. But you’ve still got to score some runs.”

On whether Leyland senses that Tigers fans are nervous:“I sense that they’re normal. They want us to win. They’re excited. The last day or so, they’ve been disappointed. Most people when they’re disappointed, they express their disappointment, and in our sport it comes in the form of boos. There’s nothing wrong with that.

"That’s very normal. They’re fired up. They want to be here when you win. That’s only normal. There’s nothing wrong with that.”